Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road

This is a discussion on Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; My father was the AGM of the Ashoka Chain and was provided an Amby and a driver. I was about ...

My father was the AGM of the Ashoka Chain and was provided an Amby and a driver. I was about 5 or 6 maybe, I think. I always used to wonder why my father was always furious at this man.

I was pampered by this driver, he used to take me to the general store and buy me candies (with his own money) which was rather sweet. Jha uncle wasn't just a driver, he used to play with us, carry me on his shoulders cause I was scared of cows as a child. He would pet them and say in his heavy voice "baba kuch nahi karti, choo ke dekho isse" Needless to say, I hope the man is happy wherever he is now.

In front of my father though, Jha uncle would never speak. It was always a 'haan sir' or a 'nahin sir' or an 'okay sir'. My father was very critical of his driving. I used to wonder why, because Jha uncle could drive. Of course he could, the car was moving wasn't it and I could poke my head out of the windows and shout back at the dogs who barked at our car.

One fine day, my father was asking people for directions and told Jha uncle to go straight and take a left before the red light. The next thing I know my father yells out "JHAAAA" in a very angry voice. I have never heard him yell so loud. I look at Jha uncle to see what he's done wrong. To take the left, Jha uncle stretched his left arm towards his left side to indicate a left turn. This is what people generally do when they stretch out their arm to the right to indicate a turn but their arms are stretched outside the car. Jha uncle though had his arm stretching out to the front passenger seat. When I think about it now, I think it was rather funny.

A couple of days ago I was riding my bike to work when at a signal I noticed that the rear right door of a car next to me was not shut properly. The countdown was somewhere around 60 seconds, so I tried to bring this to the attention of the passenger, an elderly person. He didnt notice me as he was engrossed speaking to a young boy (around 8 years, perhaps his grandson) who was sitting next to him.

So I indicated to the person driving the car, opened my helmet lid and said the rear door is not closed properly. He thanked me twice with a smile and proceeded to shout at his father (the elederly person) for not closing the door properly. While I was trying to figure out how this person could be polite to a stranger like me and rude to his own kin (usually the other way around is better, correct? Ideal is to be respectful to all), the kid in the rear seat just hugged the elderly person's arm and held his hand while the shouting went on in the front seat. I could not help but snap/ click my fingers at the driver and ask him to learn from the kid.
When I thought of it later, its just so heartwarming for a young kid to be this protective of his grandpa (assumed he was).

Edit: I have witnessed a similar outburst a few months ago, but I was not involved in that discussion. Unfortunately its not one off behaviour.

Always being used to ungeared vehicles (Luna Super Star, KiHo) I had very little idea of how to ride a bike. One day, and I remember that as a Sunday, I decided to learn. Took the keys from my uncle who had this beautiful Rx100. Of course he didnt give me the RX, but I settled for an Ind-Suzuki instead. I was trying to ride when I realised I came to this road. Like an internal road with little traffic, and lo behold, I see a traffic constable there. I almost wet my pants!. He looked at me and beckoned me over. I was in first gear all this while and somehow reached there with major jerks.

I was scared! The Policeguy sat behind me and said, Hold the clutch, ok, now kick start, ok. Now press on the front of your lefe foot, hmm, now slowly release the clutch, and we were moving! He then patiently instructed me for the next 20 minutes on how to ride the bike. (Mainly use the gearbox). I rode back home to find my anxious parents waiting for me as i was gone for a long time.

It would have been easy for the cop to berate me, but instead he chose to teach me. I found out his name was HC Jadhav and I used to meet him pretty often. Even today, I feel indebted to him.

When I met him up one day almost year after this riding my Rx 100 (given by uncle ) I took him for a nice meal at a good restaurant in Solapur.

Brought back some memories of when i first rode the Kinetic Honda. Dad had a Bajaj 150 and it had its brake pedal near the right foot and I was pretty comfortable using it too. First time on a Kiny, after zooming around a little, i was shocked and petrified at the missing brake pedal near the foot board,man those 10 secs gave me the jitters of the life. Common sense prevailed that kiny is a gearless scooter and the brakes are in the handle....

This happened last week on my way to work. These days we take a village road as a quicker though longer alternative to reach Hinjewadi IT Park. Like a good T-BHPian, one ensures that there is no honking, speeding or any inconvenience caused to the villagers on whom one is imposing. But sometimes the good intentions fail...

I was driving on the narrowest stretch of the road and come across a man herding cattle out for grazing. Only the damn animals were meandering all over the road and dangerously so. Village buffaloes have some serious horns and I was trying to weave past them but risked scratching or denting my car badly so was slowly crawling, waiting for an opening.

My window was rolled down so I hailed the guy who was herding them, "Hey boy, why don't you get them to one side of the road so I can pass?" I tell him in frustration (translated from Marathi)

I face exactly the same thing. Whenever I start for the office, minimum of 15 animals are strolling across the road, leaving me frustrated.

Now at least I will have a smile too.

And yes, there is something unusual too !

These buffaloes are always present when I drive that way..Either going to or coming back from the office. When my wife/ someone else drives, they are not present. I tried varying my timings by 1 hour both ways, but to no effect.
At last I surrendered.
And now I am even going to smile.
Cheers,
Abhijeet

For the next 3 kms, he piloted me towards the by-pass and gave me clear directions from there. I thanked him a lot and drove off. Was a pleasant experience.

I had a similar experience in Bombay.

I was lost. I asked a biker for directions. He piloted me for a 2-3 kms. Found another biker who was going my way. Handed me over to this guy. This biker then passed me on to another guy after 3-4 kms. I finally reached the highway and continued onward to Hyderabad.

I remembered something that happened probably a year back, changed the way I looked at things & became more appreciative of the life I live.

Me & my wife & our 3yr old son were out shopping one weekend, we stopped at a busy junction & as usual these kids come running asking for money. My wife was observing these kids for a moment & then suddenly she says "who decides who is out there on the road & who sits in this car". That statement hit me like a speeding truck!!

We take everything for granted in our lives, the food we eat, our health, money, prosperity, etc, we also crib about not having bigger houses & better paying jobs & bigger cars etc. But not for once we stop to think how lucky we are not to be on the other side of life.
Honestly, after that incident my outlook towards life has changed drastically, I have become more humble & grateful for all the things I've been blessed with. I also noticed I drive more peacefully

Went for tire rotation to a near by local garage as my car A** is ~15kms from my place.
Called up the garage before going, the guy on the phone was polite and he was OK for me to bring the car at 09:30am, Sunday morning @Pune !

Went to his garage, at least 15 cars of different manufacturers (Maruti/Hyundai/Chevrolet/Tata...) parked for servicing, repair etc.

He advised one of his guys to do the tire rotation. 05 minutes, job done.

Me : How much you charge for tire rotation ?
Garage Owner : No need to pay anything. (Please note, I'm not his regular customer).
Me : Surprised. Asked him again, to share how much he charges for tire rotation.
Garage Owner : Same reply (he is not willing to accept any money)
Me : Finally, almost forcefully paid 20/- for the guy who did the tire rotation.

Getting fresh air right through the hatch door . I was behind this i10 for around 2Kms, it went over several speed breakers but the 4 people(YES! 4 people!) inside couldn't realize that the hatch door was open.

At first, we thought the brown thingie inside the boot was something that doesn't fit into the boot and that's why they had left the boot door open. On closer inspection, it turned out to be bread packets.

In a junction, I was able to catch up with the i10 and tried to catch their attention. The A/C was ON and the windows were rolled up.(Oh! the irony!) I tell her that the boot door is open. she replies with great confidence.. "NO. its closed!" I asked her to turn back and have a look. Only then, she realized what was happening and they stopped the car and closed the door.

It was quite funny how the bread packets and the plushies on the tray traveled safely with the hatch door wide open. I guess the 'L' board on the windshield explains this hilarious mistake.

This past weekend my daughter and I visited Decathlon to pick up a pair of badminton rackets and some other stuff.

One of the staff there helped us with the various models on sale. After this, we spent more than 2 hours loitering around the store and picking up some more small stuff before proceeding to check out.

While the things were being billed, the staff who'd helped us with the badminton rackets suddenly walks up to our billing counter and tells the guy, "give them a special discount of Rs.100!" and walks away smiling.

I wasn't too sure if they could really do that but after paying the bill I found it did include a discount of Rs.100